SoftBank hired a London investor to help manage its $100 billion tech fund

Japanese tech giant SoftBank has hired the founder of a London-based investment fund to help manage its new $100 billion (£82 billion) tech fund, Bloomberg reports.

Akshay Naheta, founder and chief investment officer of Knight Assets, has been appointed to guide public equity investments and potential acquisitions for SoftBank's new "Vision Fund," according to the report.

Knight Assets, run out of an office in Mayfair, is set to be shut down, Bloomberg's source reportedly said.

The investment firm's website is currently not available, but the company was reportedly planning to raise a new $500 million (£411 million) fund prior to Naheta's departure. The company has invested $416 million (£343 million) into medium-sized public companies like Rolls Royce, according to Bloomberg.

At the time of the announcement, SoftBank said the fund will be made up with $45 billion (£37 billion) from Saudi Arabia via the Kingdom's Public Investment Fund, $25 billion (£20 billion) from SoftBank, and $35 billion (£28 billion) from other global investors. Other investors that have since committed to the fund include Apple, Qualcomm, Oracle founder Larry Elison, and Abu Dhabi's government.

Describing the fund, Masayoshi Son, the billionaire chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, said in a statement: "With the establishment of the SoftBank Vision Fund, we will be able to step up investments in technology companies globally. Over the next decade, the SoftBank Vision Fund will be the biggest investor in the technology sector. We will further accelerate the Information Revolution by contributing to its development."

Son, whose company operates technology and telecommunications companies worldwide, met with president-elect Donald Trump in December and told him that that he will invest half of the fund in the US, creating 50,000 new jobs in the process.